The Him DSP are a plug-in company founded by The Him, an EDM DJ and producer who has amassed over half a billion Spotify streams and carried out remix work for the likes of Tiësto, The Chainsmokers, Martin Garrix, Miley Cyrus and others. With dedicated tools for crafting kick and sub sounds already under their belt, their latest release focuses on utility, introducing a new plug-in that promises to represent the ultimate tool for carrying out A/B mix comparisons. 

Ninja AB is capable of hosting up to nine reference tracks per instance, and allows users to switch seamlessly between them. Inserting the plug-in on the master bus and playing back the session will result in the main output being captured by Ninja AB, where it can be compared to the user’s chosen reference material. Level matching is applied automatically to avoid ears being tricked by louder masters — manual adjustment is provided, too — and there’s the option of auditioning a stereo track’s left, right, Mid and Sides signals. 

Far from being a simple source-switching tool, the plug-in comes packed with analysis and metering functions that help users to see how their tracks stack up against commercial releases, and also offers some interesting tagging and synchronisation options. As well as providing a detailed visual overview of both the captured session audio and any reference material, Ninja AB makes it possible to label different sections of a track for quick selection, and it’s also possible to tag matching sections in the DAW timeline and have the plug-in follow the playhead location, meaning sections are always compared on a like-for-like basis.  

• Live Project Capture: Drop NinjaAB on the master bus and hit play — the project is captured as you listen, building the same loudness and dynamics map you'd see on a finished reference. Your mix and your references are read the same way, on the same scale. 
• Section Tagging & Sync: Tag the sections of a reference once — intro, verse, chorus, drop — and Ninja AB remembers them forever in a sidecar file next to the audio. Tag your project in the same way, and switching to a reference jumps straight to the matching section. Four sync modes run from simple section-seek to full bar-for-bar position mapping, with beat-matched playback that time-stretches references to the project tempo.
• Three Visual Overviews: Waveform for shape, RMS for true loudness, and a multiband view to see exactly where the energy lives — for any track, yours or a reference. 
• Fair Comparison By Default: Automatic loudness matching (LUFS) equalises references against your mix so louder never wins by default. An auditioning section adds HP/LP filters and stereo/Mid-Side monitoring for isolating exactly what you're comparing — low end against low end, Sides against Sides. 
• Full Metering: Peak, true peak, VU, RMS, K-14/K-20 and momentary/short-term LUFS, alongside automatic BPM detection for references.

Ninja AB is supported on Windows and macOS systems (no minimum versions specified). VST3, AU and AAX plug-in versions are available. 

Ninja AB is available now, priced at $€79.99. 

dsp.thehim.com/ninja-ab